FONTANA, Calif. – Breaking a pole drought of nearly two years, Brandon Jones drove to the fastest time during NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway.

Jones toured the two-mile Southern California oval in 39.948 seconds (180.234 mph) with the No. 19 Toyota Service Centers Toyota Supra to secure his third-career pole.

It was the first pole for the 23-year-old native of Atlanta, Ga., since May 5, 2018 at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway, as well as his first pole at Auto Club Speedway.

“To get the pole when we’ve got Toyota Service Centers on the car, this is such a big race for Toyota coming back to California, so that’s always big to be able to do that for those guys,” Jones noted. “I’ve put so much work in the offseason and especially now, prepping for these races coming into it. I actually think running that lap there was all just studying the right things and looking at the right stuff. We’ve got a really good, fast Toyota Supra for this weekend. I’ve been watching a lot of videos; we’ll see what we’ve got this afternoon.

“Hopefully, that thing stays as fast as Xfinity internet and we’ll be in victory lane at the end.”

Jones’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Harrison Burton will join him on the front row for the Production Alliance Group 300, after a best lap of 40.079 seconds (179.645 mph) in the No 20 DEX Imaging Toyota Supra.

It’s the first sweep of the Xfinity Series front row by Joe Gibbs Racing since last October, when Christopher Bell won the pole at Kansas Speedway and Jones qualified second.

Saturday will also be the second time Burton has started second in Xfinity Series competition, but he felt like one small mistake may have kept him from his first pole.

“We had a really fast race car and my guys made good adjustments from yesterday to keep up. The temperature really dropped there, but our Supra was still fast in the cool weather,” said Burton. “I just messed up a little bit in 3 and 4. Brandon did a really good job at not making any mistakes and that’s what gets you (the pole). Really proud of my guys though.

“We have a fast DEX Imaging Supra and I’m really excited for the race today.”

Chase Briscoe’s Ford Mustang and Daniel Hemric’s Chevrolet Camaro will share the second row of the starting grid, followed by a third JGR Toyota Supra driver in Riley Herbst.

Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Ryan Sieg, Justin Haley and Justin Allgaier filled out the top 10.

The Production Alliance Group 300 goes green at 4 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

To view the full starting grid, advance to the next page.

GEORGETOWN, Del. – The Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco will make more history in its first Northeast event of the season.

On March 6-7, Georgetown Speedway kicks off the STSS South Region season with the fifth edition of the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial, remembering the late First State auto racing and business pioneer who constructed the half-mile speedway in 1949 and opened the facility in March 1950.

The 2020 edition of the Melvin L. Joseph is officially Delaware’s richest Modified race.

The 49-lap STSS Modified event – race one of the Velocita-USA South Region presented by Design for Vision and Sunglass Central – offers $10,049 to the winner, the most lucrative to date for a modified event on Delaware soil.

Two full days of racing – Friday and Saturday – comprise the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial weekend.

BD Motorsports Media LLC – entering its fifth season promoting Georgetown Speedway – has posted a total purse structure of $66,982 for the weekend.

Friday night consists of a complete Small-Block Modified program (30 laps, $4,049 to win), RUSH Late Models (20 laps, $1,049 to win), Delmarva Chargers and Delaware Super Trucks.

Hot laps will take place Friday for STSS Modifieds and STSS Crate 602 Sportsman with the two fastest drivers overall in each division earning redraw positions for the Saturday main events.

Saturday fires to life with the STSS Modifieds (49 laps, $10,049 to win), STSS Crate 602 Sportsman (25 laps, $1,490 to win), Delmarva Chargers, Delaware Super Trucks and Southern Delaware Vintage Stock Cars.

Ken Adams of the Melvin L. Joseph Construction company has posted $49 per lap for all 49 laps of the STSS Modified event, a total of $2,401. The money will rotate through the top-seven running order.

Auto racing icon Ken Schrader serves as the weekend’s Grand Marshal and will be available to meet fans throughout the weekend.

It's not the 16th at TPC Scottsdale, but the par-3 17th at PGA National has become quite the rowdy hole of its own over the last few years.

That only intensifies when the fans experience a hole-in-one up close and personal like they were treated to Saturday by Grayson Murray at the Honda Classic.

Not sure if that hat toss was meant to land in the stands, but it doesn't matter either way when Murray walked up to the green to pick his ball up out of the cup.

Murray needed a boost like that near the end of his third round. Things weren't quite going his way, making the turn in 2 over following a triple bogey at the par-4 fourth. He would get one of those back with a birdie at the par-4 11th, but then dropped it right back at No. 15.

It's hard to imagine by how fired up Murray was walking up to the green, but Saturday's hole-in-one marks the fourth of his career.

U.S. international Timothy Weah has been ruled out until the end of the French league season because of a right leg injury.

The 20-year-old forward suffered a torn hamstring on Feb. 16 on his return to competition with French club Lille after a six-month layoff due to the same injury.

Lille coach Christophe Galtier said on Saturday that Weah, who underwent surgery earlier this week, won't play again this season.

"Hopefully we can have him back for the start of next season," Galtier told a news conference.

Weah, the son of former FIFA world player of the year and current Liberia President George Weah, joined Lille from Paris Saint-Germain last year after spending the previous season on loan at Scottish club Celtic.

Bayern Munich's 6-0 win against Hoffenheim finished in extraordinary circumstances as the teams played the final 11 minutes passing the ball among themselves following a brief abandonment caused by supporter protests against Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp.

Borussia Dortmund's 1-0 win against Freiburg was also briefly stopped for the same reason, as BVB supporters continued their recent crusade against Hopp.

Fans at Hoffenheim vs. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund vs. Freiburg unfurled banners and chanted insults towards Hopp, causing both referees to halt the games in an attempt to regain control.

Hopp has been a lightning rod, especially in recent weeks, for some German fans who oppose the way he used his wealth to help Hoffenheim climb through the lower leagues to the Bundesliga with consecutive promotions more than a decade ago.

Sources told ESPN prior to Saturday that Hoffenheim were bracing for protests against Hopp, and had informed other Bundesliga clubs.

Referee Christian Dingert stopped play at Hoffenheim in the 79th minute with Bayern leading 6-0.

"Things remain the same. DFB breaks its vow. Hopp remains a son of a b----," a banner displayed in Bayern's end read.

The referee ordered the teams into the tunnel and some Bayern players as well as the entire club leadership walked to the stands and urged fans to take it down immediately.

After a 20-minute interruption both teams came back onto the pitch and ran down the clock without playing competitively, ending the game with an ovation for Hopp and with Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge by the billionaire's side in a show of solidarity.

"I am deeply ashamed for the behaviour of these people. That is inexcusable. It is the ugly face of football," Rummenigge told reporters.

"I have apologised to Dietmar Hopp. We have filmed everything and these people will be held accountable."

Rummenigge wasn't the only person to call out fans after the games with Hoffenheim executive Peter Gorlich saying German football must show Hopp solidarity.

"A compliment to the refs, the fans and the FC Bayern players. They all realised a line was crossed and solidarity comes first. It's about one person, but in the end it's about a human being. Football Germany must show solidarity," Gorlich said.

However, a German ultra described the situation to ESPN postmatch as "all-out war."

The game in Dortmund, meanwhile, was stopped to follow UEFA's three-step protocol originally designed to help match officials deal with racist incidents in stadiums.

Following an announcement over the PA system the stadium reacted furiously with even louder whistles.

Last weekend, the game between Borussia Monchengladbach and Hoffenheim was abandoned for a brief spell after protests against Hopp in the second half.

Banners showed Hopp in crosshairs and used strong language to condemn the German FA for banning all Dortmund supporters from travelling to Hoffenheim for two years after they displayed anti-Hopp posters.

The protests happened on the same day that games paid tribute to 11 people killed in a racially-motivated shooting in Hanau and the German FA announced they had launched an investigation into the incident.

"We come out against racism and discrimination before a game -- and then 50 idiots put up a banner like that. It's madness," Gladbach executive Max Eberl said.

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.

Liverpool's sensational Premier League unbeaten run came to a shocking end at Vicarage Road as Watford ran out 3-0 winners on Saturday night. Following an edgy first 45 minutes the Hornets really imposed their will in a crazy six-minute period where Ismaila Sarr scored a brace that he won't soon forget. Club legend Troy Deeney added the third to ensure that Jurgen Klopp's men have to wait a little bit longer before being crowned champions.

Positives

The Reds have an ability to control possession unlike the majority of top clubs across European football. They did the simple things well in terms of keeping it on the deck and finding intricate sequences when going forward, and they didn't really rush in their decision making -- alas, that was much more evident in the first half than the second.

Negatives

Liverpool were bullied on and off the ball by Watford who got stuck in and introduced an element of doubt into the visitors' play whenever they went into 50-50 challenges. They couldn't get going from an attacking point of view with the Hornets restricting their movement, and it didn't seem as if there was a plan B. At the back, their complacent defensive style finally came back to bite them.

Manager rating out of 10

5 - Some big questions are going to be raised regarding why Jurgen Klopp went with Dejan Lovren ahead of Joel Matip, but outside of that, he stuck to the status quo with the standard 4-3-3 and put a lot of face in his midfield -- and it just didn't pay off. He made positive substitutions but they just didn't possess the strength in depth necessary to really get at Watford.

Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best, players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)

GK Alisson, 5 -- The popular keeper made a string of important saves but after being chipped for the second and playing an incredibly high line, it's a game he'll quickly want to forget.

DF Andrew Robertson, 5 -- The Scot should've stuck to his man for the opening goal, and in a general sense, he was caught continually drifting out of position in an attempt to be the hero going forward.

DF Virgin van Dijk, 6 -- He may have great distribution and a towering presence at the back, but you could argue he was caught napping with his positioning for Watford's second goal.

DF Dejan Lovren, 3 -- His first-half composure turned into a second-half disaster with the Croatian being too static for the first goal. From that point on he was caught chasing shadows for the second and showed poor strength in the air for the hosts' third goal of the evening.

DF Trent Alexander-Arnold, 4 -- The defensive frailties of the local lad were on display from the first minute with Deulofeu causing him all kinds of problems. While that was bad, his shining moment came when he essentially passed the ball straight to Troy Deeney for the third goal.

MF Georginio Wijnaldum, 5 -- There was simply no sense of authority in the middle of the park with Wijnaldum struggling to get his foot on the ball and make things happen.

MF Fabinho, 4 -- When Jordan Henderson isn't in this side, the effectiveness of the Brazilian decreases substantially. He was dispossessed on a handful of occasions and proved why he needs to drop back closer to the back four.

MF Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 4 -- Ox always appears to throw all of his eggs into one basket with his surging runs into the box, and most of the time, he completely loses control of what he's doing.

FW Sadio Mane, 5 -- While he showed great vision with a few picture-perfect passes in the first half that wasn't enough as Mane was completely marked out of the game.

FW Roberto Firmino, 5 -- Carried the ball into dangerous positions fairly effectively every now and then, but it simply wasn't enough under the pressure of a smothering Watford defence.

FW Mohamed Salah, 5 -- There wasn't even a sniff of a Salah masterclass tonight as he largely went missing after the first 15 minutes of the game.

Substitutes

MF Adam Lallana, 6 -- The former Southampton star was able to inject some life into Liverpool upon being introduced, including a stinging shot that clipped the post.

FW Divock Origi, 5 -- Origi wasn't given the kind of delivery he needs to make an impact upon being introduced in the second half.

MF Takumi Minamino, N/A -- The belief was that Minamino could serve as Liverpool's ace up the sleeve, but he seemed far too trepidatious on the ball.

It was here at Boland Park that Heinrich Klaasen endured one of the worst days of his career. Two months ago, on the morning of December 16, he found out that he had been dropped from the South Africa Test squad ahead of the series against England after a torrid debut in Ranchi on their trip to India in September. That evening, the Mzansi Super League franchise he captains, the Tshwane Spartans, lost the tournament final to the Paarl Rocks.

Klaasen, who is not the most expressive character, cut a grim figure when he was asked about the compounding disappointments. "It's not been a great week for me, but that's part of the job," he said then. "I need to go back and perform. I want to play Test cricket but there's a lot of work that I have to do and put numbers on the board."

Now, a little more than two months later, it's was at Boland Park that Klaasen enjoyed one of the best days of his career with his maiden ODI hundred in his 15th match. Asked whether he could describe the feeling when the milestone came up, Klaasen shook his head and grinned. "No I can't," he said. "It's difficult to put in words. It's just pure emotion that came out."

Measured, pure emotion. Klaasen's celebrations, whether muted by the heat and smoke that hung in the air or by the knowledge that South Africa still needed a few more runs to get themselves into a properly dominant position, were quiet by most maiden hundred standards. There was no leap or air punch but a bat raise and a brief conversation with the heavens and then he was back in the zone, and continued to add to the total.

Klaasen finished on 123 not out, and his partnership with David Miller was worth half the final score. Crucially, it took the pressure off Quinton de Kock, who has been South Africa's top-scorer in five out of the last six series and has come to be relied upon to do the bulk of the line-up's work. "It's not the Quinton de Kock show," Klaasen said."He is an incredible player but we can't put all the pressure on them. The coach has been asking for someone else step up. Quinton can't bat for 50 overs on his own."

South Africa's coach, Mark Boucher, was also Klaasen's coach at the Titans for the past three seasons and it was under Boucher that Klaasen was earmarked as an international. He traveled with the Test squad on a tour to New Zealand in 2017, but only made his Test debut two years later, in India. The inevitable consequence of being on tour but not on the field was that Klaasen didn't play a lot and when he was left out of the Test squad to face England at home, he was given the opportunity to put that right. "The selectors told me to go back to franchise and play more consistency; to spend a lot of time in the middle," he said.

Though he has not hit the lights out, his numbers are steady. In the first-class competition, Klaasen collected 413 runs from five matches at an average of 51.62, which included four fifties. He has 162 runs from four one-day cup matches at 40.50, with one fifty. And then he got the call-up for the white-ball leg of the England series and made a big impression with 66 at his home ground, Centurion, to set South Africa up for a score of 222 for 6. That they couldn't defend it was not Klaasen's concern. He did his bit.

A hip injury prevented him from continuing to do it for South Africa's next two T20 matches, but he was back in the XI as soon as he was fit, displacing allrounder Jon-Jon Smuts. That too tells a story. Instead of opt for a two-in-one player, South Africa have chosen Klaasen, demonstrating the faith Boucher has put in him. "It's always good to know that your coach backs you," he said. "We have got a good relationship, which changed in the last couple of months before he came up."

Boucher's promotion meant Klaasen lost a mentor of sorts but he has been working with other former internationals like Albie Morkel and Jacques Rudolph and has tried to model himself on one of his franchise team-mates, Dean Elgar - specifically an innings for the Titans against the Cobras earlier this month, when Elgar took the team from 50 for 2 to 302 for 4. Klaasen also had assurance from Boucher that he was doing the right thing on a surface where run-scoring was tough.

"The message came out from from the coach to say, 'You are doing a good job,'" Klaasen said. "He said if we go three or four an over for the next 15 overs, he was happy. We didn't have to worry about trying too many things, just take the low risk option."

In doing that, Klaasen made it difficult for Australia to tie him down, according to their captain, Aaron Finch. "He picked his moments in when to attack the bowlers. They rotated, they ran hard, that was a quality knock." And that's high praise as any Klaasen could expect to get in Paarl.